OS2 World Community Forum

OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Hardware => Topic started by: Tyro65 on January 26, 2018, 07:38:59 pm

Title: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Tyro65 on January 26, 2018, 07:38:59 pm
I have two cards: a Radeon HD 7450 and a Nvidia Geforce 8400gs. I am currently using the Radeon with the Panorama driver in Arca Noae 5.0.1. It works but not well. I can watch videos if they are small and I don't try to expand their viewing size on the screen.

I have some questions.
1. Would the performance of the Radeon HD 7540 improve if I install Snap?
2. Would it be a better to install the Nvidia Geforce 8400gs. Would it work with Panorama or Snap?
3. Would I be wise to buy one of the cards in the Arca Noae Snap list for digitally-connected LCD panels?

I appreciate your advice.
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Dariusz Piatkowski on January 26, 2018, 09:18:25 pm
I am using SNAP here with my ATI X850 XT PE card, pretty ancient stuff by today's standards.

...BUT...

It is accelerated (about 10x faster in PM than Panorama 1.09) and will do dual-head display, although, that requires one panel to be VGA driven and the 2nd one to be DVI connected. Specifically here is the key note, given your mention regarding digitally-connected LCD panels:

Please note that there are some restrictions imposed for MultiHead:

1. Only CRT (15-pin VGA) output is supported for MultiHead at this time.
   You may need to use DVI->VGA connectors on some graphics cards.  The
   only exception to this is the ATI Radeon chipsets, which can also do
   multihead in CRT+DFP configurations, due to native panel programming.
   CRT+LCD, CRT+TV, and DFP+DFP are all unsupported at this time.

Not sure about the ATI HD stuff, however the readme does show the following 7xxx series cards as being supported: ATI Radeon 7000, Radeon 7200, Radeon 7500
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Tyro65 on January 26, 2018, 09:40:08 pm
I feel silly asking but --- what is PM?
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Martin Iturbide on January 26, 2018, 10:39:22 pm
Hi Stanley.

PM is "Presentation Manager", in short is the OS/2 GUI.
Here it is more information: http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Presentation_Manager (http://www.edm2.com/index.php/Presentation_Manager)

Regards
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Tyro65 on January 26, 2018, 11:49:37 pm
Is this where I download Snap graphics?
ecsoft2.org/scitech-snap-graphics
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Dave Yeo on January 27, 2018, 12:10:40 am
Is this where I download Snap graphics?
ecsoft2.org/scitech-snap-graphics

Included with ArcaOS or on hobbes, http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/video/snap-os2-3.1.8.zip (http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/system/drivers/video/snap-os2-3.1.8.zip)
The version included with ArcaOS has some SMP fixes.
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Tyro65 on January 27, 2018, 02:11:29 am
How do I install Snap from the Arca Noae 5.0.1 DVD? I've searched the DVD for a zip file.
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Dave Yeo on January 27, 2018, 04:10:27 am
Snap should be under x:\CID\SERVER\SNAP where x: is your DVD drive. Just run setup.cmd at a cmd prompt for instructions. Basically, eg set LANG=en_US and then
Code: [Select]
setup.cmd SNAP

There's a readme in the directory as well. You should be able to switch straight from Panorama to SNAP without the VGA step though I haven't personally tested.
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Tyro65 on January 27, 2018, 04:56:47 am
Thanks all. This has helped so much, saved me fumbling around for hours.

Stan
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Greg Pringle on January 30, 2018, 04:56:27 pm
There is an inexpensive X800 card on Amazon for under $40 that works with SNAP and has wide screen.

The card below does not have a fan but instead a huge heat sink (which does get warm).
It needs two slots due to the size of the heat sink.

Look for this:
ATI Radeon X800 Pro PCI-E Video Card (VGA + DVI + S-Video)
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Daniel on February 02, 2018, 08:33:04 am
I have a similar question. I have been using an X850 pro with good results under SNAP. I got two as bulk OEM several years ago. I believe they are the fastest available cards that run under SNAP. They work great even though they sound like they are about to go airborn on boot but then quiet down.

But now I need a card that will run under SNAP and that is PCI-E but, and this is the hard part, is half-height. Does anybody have any ideas?
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Greg Pringle on February 02, 2018, 03:49:36 pm
I have not used this card but it is listed in the Snap readme.

Half height pci-e card available used:

ATI FireMV 2200 PCI-E 128MB PCIE

Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Pete on February 02, 2018, 04:10:14 pm
Hi Daniel

Several of the ATI X series are/were available as half height cards an ebay(uk) search for
ati x half
shows a few. You could also try ati x low as the search term.


Regards

Pete



Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Olafur Gunnlaugsson on February 02, 2018, 06:07:52 pm
Dell Radeon X600 PCIe is slower than the X850 but still works well on OS/2, it is a half height card that shipped with brackets for both sizes and in large volumes, you will find them on auction sites with either bracket (rarely both). Only problem is that it has a DMS-59 connector so you will need a DMS to DVI or DE15 splitter cable (should come with the card but rarely does), if your monitor or monitors are HDMI only that is not a problem as the DVI signal is HDMI compatible and those dirt cheap passive DVI to HDMI converters you find just about anywhere work just fine.

here is an example:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dell-G9184-ATI-Radeon-X600-256MB-PCI-E-DMS-59-Graphics-Card-REF-D2/362191977924?hash=item545452fdc4:g:djIAAOSwT2daOmu6

The also turn up new on ebay in bulk from time to time. Note that the Dell X600XL is a completely different card and is full height only.
Title: Re: Choosing a Graphics Card
Post by: Daniel on February 02, 2018, 08:41:12 pm
Thanks everyone for the information. I will see what I can find. My situation is that I combined two dead Dells and got one working. The tower motherboard fit in the desktop case and some mangling of the cables got everything working. But of course it only takes half height boards.

Now if SNAP gets updated to some modern boards that would be even more interesting.